Queen Latifah makes her debut with Boston Pops May 10-11

Thursday

May 4, 2017 at 11:39 AMMay 4, 2017 at 11:41 AM

By R. Scott Reedy, Correspondent

To call Queen Latifah the proverbial show business triple threat would be to underestimate her.

A genre-crossing, Grammy Award-winning recording artist, Academy Award-nominated movie star and Emmy-nominated and Golden Globe-winning television actress, she is also an Emmy-winning producer of feature films and TV-movies, an author, songwriter and record producer.

Latifah – who joins Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops May 10-11 to open the spring season at Symphony Hall – doesn't hesitate when acknowledging which of her professional pursuits gives her the greatest satisfaction.

“I enjoy everything I do for different reasons. I like acting, and I also enjoy working as a producer, creating new projects and managing talent,” said Latifah by telephone from Los Angeles. “But performing music live feeds my soul. There is nothing else like it. It’s a rush and a thrill. The emotional connection with an audience, when you make it, is just exhilarating.”

The Newark, New Jersey, native, born Dana Elaine Owens, began making that connection with her 1989 debut album, “All Hail the Queen,” featuring the hit single “Ladies First,” and her follow-up second album, “Nature of a Sista,” released in 1991.

Her third album, “Black Reign,” included the hit single “U.N.I.T.Y.” Addressing the disrespect of women in society, domestic violence and the negative treatment of women by the hip-hop culture, the song, co-written by Latifah, won her the 1995 Grammy for best rap solo performance and cemented her status as a groundbreaking female rapper. Her first jazz release, “The Dana Owens Album” in 2004, was also Grammy-nominated as best jazz vocal album, and her “Trav’lin’ Light” was a 2008 Grammy nominee for best traditional pop vocal album.

“I’m super excited to be making my debut with the Boston Pops," she said. "It is a real honor to be asked to kick off the season. For my band and me just to play with that size orchestra is unbelievable. It doesn’t happen often. We’ll be doing a lot of jazz and standards and some of the songs I’m associated with, too, like ‘I Know Where I’ve Been’ from ‘Hairspray.’ And, if the crowd wants it, I might also break out a little rap with Pops. I always keep some hip-hop in my back pocket,” said the singer.

A starring role on Fox-TV’s hit series “Living Single,” for which she also wrote and performed the theme song, led Latifah to acting roles in feature films. Her films include Spike Lee’s “Jungle Fever,” “Chicago,” which earned her a 2003 Oscar nomination as best supporting actress for the role of Matron “Mama” Morton, “Bringing Down the House,” “Beauty Shop,” and “Joyful Noise,” which she co-executive produced with partner Shakim Compere under their Flavor Unit Entertainment banner, “Mad Money,” and “The Secret Life of Bees.”

And as Ellie, a female woolly mammoth, Latifah lent her voice to the 2002 animated feature “Ice Age” and its four sequels. She also found success in TV movies like HBO’s “Life Support” and Lifetime’s “Steel Magnolias,” both produced by Flavor Unit Entertainment, and “Bessie,” also for HBO.

Her upcoming TV movie, “Flint,” now shooting in Toronto, is a reunion on several levels.

“What first drew me to ‘Flint’ was its producers, Neil Meron and Craig Zadan, who also produced ‘Chicago’ and ‘Hairspray.’ When they call, I pick up. I was glad to be able to make this happen, too, because Bruce Beresford is directing and he’s terrific. And it’s a chance to work with my friend Jill Scott from ‘Steel Magnolias,’ and to be back at Lifetime, too.”

It’s also an opportunity to keep the focus on an important issue facing America today.

“This is a story that needs to be told,” says Latifah of the Flint water crisis that, beginning in 2014, exposed the city’s 100,000 residents to dangerous levels of lead in their tap water. “I followed the story every day in the news and it should not ever be forgotten. I hope this movie will bring attention to the condition of our country’s infrastructure. What happened in Flint shouldn’t even have been possible.”

The 47-year-old – who in 2006 became the first hip-hop performer to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame – is also currently starring as Carlotta Brown on the Fox-TV series “Star,” from creator and producer Lee Daniels.

“Lee and I began talking about this project at an after-party for his film ‘Precious’ in 2009. We hung out and eventually we got on the topic of the documentary ‘Paris Is Burning,’ which we both loved, and how some of the people in it were high school classmates of mine or friends I knew from the clubs. In his younger days, Lee’s life crossed some of the same paths, too,” said the actress, whose character is a gospel-singing mentor to an aspiring girl group, a beauty shop owner, and mother to a transgender daughter.

“What interested us about this aspect of the show was the fact that not everybody knows what to think or the right thing to say. And you can’t just fault people for what they don’t understand, you have to build a bridge. That said, you hear about Caitlyn Jenner, which is important, but sometimes that gets trivialized. If we communicate about it in this show and do it well, however, we can continue to grow to understand each other.

“And I’m glad my character will be a big part of that. I like Carlotta. She’s straight up. She’s women I know, especially from the hair salon. She’s flawed and she has her struggles, but she does the best she can. Carlotta is like a lot of my mother’s friends that I knew growing up. She makes mistakes, but she has a huge capacity for love.”

While she gets pleasure from filmmaking, music remains Latifah’s first love.

“I just took guitar lessons for my birthday,” Latifah said. “I always like to learn new things. And I just might play guitar on stage one of these days.”